


Transfer

by zarabithia



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-09
Updated: 2006-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 07:59:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14890625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: To save Dick, Clark must give him Kryptonian powers.





	Transfer

"There has to be another way." Superman’s voice echoes through the Fortress deceivingly well, giving the illusion that he is all alone. Nightwing’s silence does nothing to alter that belief, as the fevered body of his lover remains still on the lab table he lies on. Dead calm, Clark thinks, and the thought is enough to make him miss the coughing fits that had preceded the calm, despite the amount of blood those coughs had spilled onto Nightwing’s costume.

Clark traces the dried fluid, consciously thinking how badly the red clashes against the blue, as the voice of his long-ago dead father answers him. "There is not, Kal-El. The bacteria your friend has been subjected to is designed to use his human protein structure against him."

"I know that!" His temper slips through his voice, even as his hands come to cup Dick’s hands gently in his larger palms. "That’s why I brought him to you. The human doctors can’t do anything." This once, he allows contempt for the species he has always loved, protected, and, at times, envied.

"I have told you what can be done, Kal-El."

"There has to be another way," Clark repeats, trying not to notice that Dick’s skin has grown as warm as his own. "There’s always another way."

"Kryptonian physiology is the only one known to be resistant to this bacteria's attack," Jor-El informs him, full of patience that one can afford when their whole world is already gone. "The procedure itself is not without risk, but if his molecular structure is not altered, he will die."

Somersaults, cotton-candy flavored kisses, and childish laughter all vie for his memory’s dominance, but in the end, they all lose to the memory of the confused young man that had come to him only months before, seeking his help after being fired by the man he’d trusted most in the world.

Dick had turned to Superman, and if he hadn’t, the young man wouldn’t be lying on his death bed, and Clark wouldn’t have had to make the toughest decision he’d ever had to make in his life. "He won’t be human anymore."

"No. He’ll be stronger."

Clark closes his eyes against Jor-El’s words, but doesn’t offer an argument, even though he knows Dick won’t see it that way. More importantly, neither will Bruce. But. . "He’ll live. He won‘t be human anymore, but he‘ll live."

"He’ll have all of your abilities," Jor-El continues. "If he cannot be trusted with them -"

"There is no one I trust more." Clark leans down and kisses the sweat-laden brow of the body beneath him. He tries to imagine a super-powered Nightwing, and all the good Dick can accomplish. His mind sees the other man sailing through the air at his side. . . and it sees a heart-broken little boy who never quite got his father-figure back.

Clark can only hope that the gift of flight will be enough to compensate for the act of severing the last connection between Batman and Robin forever.

"I’m ready to begin," he tells Jor-El.

The voice that answers is as artificial as it has ever been, but the pause Jor-El gives still manages to convey a sense of pity. "I am sorry that there is no other way, my son."

"So am I."


End file.
